Teachers MUST increase school performance scores.
We have a deadline to meet and an almost impossible feat to accomplish:
Change our dropout factories to schools of high performance. I am NOT saying that it is impossible to do but…. It is not going to be easy. To get different results, we have to do things differently.
I recently had the pleasure of witnessing a group of students singing, rapping and dancing while going over the correct way to revise an essay. Huh? YES, I say students rap about the steps to revising an essay. I saw students chant about how to get rid of run-on sentences. Even I danced while identifying the steps to organizing an essay. I was at the N.A.B.S.E. Youth Symposium attending a workshop with 600 high and middle schoolers. The kids were taking notes in a workbook while being entertained by a dynamic, engaging presenter, Erik Cork.
Erick Cork holds a writing workshop that taught my students some of the same things that I try to teach them every day:
- The difference between good writers and great writers
- Five universal essay requirements using The scoring rubric, state objectives & the standardized model
- Capitalization rules & punctuation opportunities
- Three necessary steps for mastery
- Composition writing techniques
- Literary terminology
He told them some of the same things that I have told them but they listened to him while they do not listen to me. Why? DELIVERY!!! People often say that I am dramatic and a jokester and I always respond by saying the classroom is my stage.
He used music that they are familiar with, he called them on the stage to participate, he showed them that he could do their dances, He Talked to Them in Their Language. And they listened.
When we got back to school several of my students asked if I was going to start teaching like that. I looked at him and asked if he thought it would make a difference. He thought about it for a moment and said that it would because those who do not listen now would be more engaged and therefore participate.
Hmmm, if they are asking me to change the how of what I teach, how can I not think about it? I guess that I will be spending part of this Thanksgiving Break creating raps (I do not sing) to catch attention and teach fundamentals. Moving mountains by rapping and performing…? Maybe. I hope so. Will let you know how it goes. I found a rap of Romeo and Juliet and I will be sure to use this in class next week. Time to take the stage.
